Peter Hutchinson represents everything that is wrong with education discourse
First he created a $50 million failed experiment at the Bush Foundation, now he's lying about Mississippi, trying to get Minnesota to adopt an authoritarian education pedagogy
Rob Levine
May 9, 2025
The case of Peter Hutchinson reveals just why it is so dangerous for Minnesota media, of all stripes, to never critically cover business philanthropy. Hutchinson was president of the St Paul based Bush Foundation beginning in 2007. While there he changed the foundation's giving policy. Instead of entertaining grant applications the philanthropy would instead build its own programs to advance its goals.
By the end of the project there were fewer students in college and “gaps” were the same or worse. The VAM scheme for proving the expected success had been abandoned halfway through the project, which, coincidentally, is when Hutchinson also left
In education this policy took shape as its Teacher Effectiveness Initiative (TEI), a 10 year, $50 million project that at the time was the foundation's biggest ever. The project assumed that the problem with primary and secondary education, and with so-called “gaps,” is teachers, and teachers alone. But rather than directly going after teachers, Hutchinson postulated, without any proof, that the problem was with the places that taught teachers, not the teachers themselves.
In a nutshell, Hutchinson promised that, under his guidance, in 10 years (ending in 2019) there would be 50% more students in college in Minnesota, that so-called “gaps” would be eliminated, and that he would prove it all with a new measurement tool called Value Added Method (VAM), a scheme invented to increase production of animal husbandry.
By the end of the project there were fewer young adults in college in Minnesota, the “gaps” were the same or worse, and the VAM scheme for proving the expected success had been abandoned halfway through the project, which, coincidentally, is when Hutchinson abandoned the foundation.
Which brings us to Hutchinson's op-ed in the StarTribune extolling the “virtues” of the Science of Reading (SoR). In his piece he unfavorably compares Minnesota's education system to Mississippi's, where they supposedly have worked miracles by implementing SoR more than a decade ago. Fourth grade reading scores in MS have indeed gone up in recent years, along with fourth grade math scores. SoR advocates never mention this. Did SoR also cause an increase in fourth grade math scores in Mississippi?
A more likely explanation for increases in math and reading scores in Mississippi is that the 2013 education laws caused both scores to be goosed. Because not only did Mississippi implement SoR system wide in 2013, it also passed laws that caused the state to retain more K-3 graders than any state in the nation, that included a so-called third grade “reading gate” which students had to pass to be advanced to fourth grade.
Occam's razor would suggest that if you take your lowest scoring third graders and run them through third grade again fourth grade scores will be higher across the board. And that's what happened. Did SoR help? Probably not, because after more than a decade of SoR EIGHTH grade reading scores in Mississippi haven't budged.
One might conceivably wonder why someone who has been so wrong about education in the past gets to tell zombie lies about Mississippi and reading over and over again. One also might wonder why Hutchinson's tenure at the Bush Foundation is never mentioned when he writes op-eds. I'll leave it to the editors to explain that particular conundrum.
Rob Levine
April 26, 2021
Minnesota foundations scramble to save their favored highly-segregated charter schools by defending segregation
IN THESE DAYS OF RACIAL STRIFE it may surprise you to learn that one influential philanthropy based in Minneapolis is paying for arguments in court to allow segregated public schools. Another foundation is leading the charge to remove language from the state's constitution that courts have used to bar segregation in schools. What's going on here? Are the Twin Cities not the 'liberal' bastion people make it out to be?
Rob Levine
March 10, 2021
Thirty years of attacking public schools and failing to increase educational achievement is enough
In the Fall of 2022 Minnesotans may be voting on a constitutional amendment that will fundamentally change state law around public education. How will this change public education? Surprisingly, even the authors profess not to know the answer to this question. The only thing certain about the proposed amendment is that it will empower courts and throw districts, parents and others into constant legal battles.
Rob Levine
September 20, 2019
The foundation famously promised 50% more students in post-secondary education in three states, erasure of so-called 'achievement gaps,' and a fancy new evaluation tool.
Ten years later there are actually fewer students in college, 'achievement gaps' are the same or worse, and its hyped $2 million VAM evaluation tool is up in flames - but the foundation is undaunted — proud of its failure
Rob Levine
May 15, 2019
A simplified animation of how the introduction of charter schools into a public school district can lead to its extinction, through a cycle of draining students, inability to quickly react, program cuts and school closings.
Though specifics vary, across the nation charter schools are draining the students and finances of public school districts, creating distress in many. In Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Foundation is trying this very strategy with its created entity, Minnesota Comeback, whose goal is 30,000 new charter seats in the city.
Rob Levine
October 8, 2018
Getting Minnesota charter school history wrong, again.
At one time Hiawatha had passable test scores, but this story, like so many education reform stories, was not what it seemed. In recent years Hiawatha's test scores have dropped steadily back down to earth, so that now they're about half of the state averages. For some reason national, and especially local media aren't interested in that now.
Rob Levine
May 7, 2017
Ember Reichgott Junge's book provides a clear view into the history of charter schools in Minnesota, just not the one she intended
This is a big year for charter school aficionados in Minnesota, as 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the the nation’s first charter school in St. Paul. The legislation that authorized charter schools, enacted a year earlier, though limited in scope, promised a thorough consideration of the experimental education model, which has since sprouted up in 43 states and the District of Columbia.
Since that time rules have been loosened, spending has multiplied many times over, and hundreds of charter schools have opened in the state. Many others have been closed. Have charters lived up to the grand boasts of supporters? Have the effects been more negative than positive? Do charters represent a threat to local, democratic control of public education? On the silver anniversary of the landmark school opening the local discourse is heating up.
Gotcha.
Rob Levine
April 23, 2017
Poverty Academies, Segregation Academies and a foundation plan to erase the Minneapolis public school district
“School choice " is all the rage in Minnesota these days. The kind of school choice most in vogue are charter schools, where, according to promoters, less affluent parents can experience the same kind of education “marketplace " that rich people enjoy with their private schools.
Ok — that's an argument. But just what kind of choices are there for, say, low-income parents of color in the core Twin Cities?
The implicit deal was to trade charter school integration for higher test scores - but it hasn't turned out that way
Questions about segregation, integration, and academic performance have been intrinsically linked in American education policy since at least 1954, when Brown v. Board held that segregated educational facilities are inherently unequal. The research leading to that decision,and the overwhelming social science consensus ever since, has suggested that segregated schools produce a host of harms for their students, and integrated schools generate a host of benefits.
Rob Levine
September 4, 2012
Beating the odds, or beating the test?
“Odds-beating charter school. " Those words are like an impenetrable shield for those who operate such places. They are also the holy grail of the education reform movement, which is constantly seeking shortcuts to radically increase measures of educational achievement, which these days is pretty much defined by increased math and language test scores.